Intrepid Brewery are hosting an open day and tap session on bank holiday Monday, 30 August. This is a rare opportunity to drink their beer on site at the brewery and if you want food to soak the beer up then Sunshine Pizza will also be there with their oven! The brewery can be found at Brough (near Bradwell and Hope) on bus route 271/272.
Recent brews from Grizzly Grains have included a 4.8% Elderflower Pale brewed with English and Czech hops, Sheffield Elderflowers and Limeflower Honey from Heeley City Farm along with a return of their Rye IPA.
Heist Brew Co are now up and running down at Neepsend with a few brews already under their belt and the tap room opened on 10 August. The tap room showcases their beers plus guest craft beers and has a games area as well as serving food from Slap & Pickle Burgers and Ritual Doughnuts.
Thornbridge have brewed a session IPA for the Leadmill music venue and nightclub which will be available at the bar in cans at all their forthcoming events.
The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert tap room is now open regularly every weekend – Thursday 4-8pm, Friday & Saturday 2-8pm. You can find them at 90 Stevenson Road in Attercliffe, bus 52/52a stops fairly close at the end of the road, it is walkable from Attercliffe tram stop or if you are feeling energetic and the weather is good you can walk from town along the canal towpath! You can just turn up like a normal pub but table bookings are advisable for groups. Their newest beer is Hop Stingo which has loads of hop aromas from a wood fermentation with warm hop additions as well as a secondary dry hop.
Little Critters have released a new batch of their 5% ABV chocolate orange stout, Orange-Utan. If you don’t see it in the pub on cask then it is also available in can to order from their website.
Drone Valley Brewery are hosting a bar at the family fun day hosted by the Bradway Community Action Group on Saturday 11 September. This is taking place from 1:30-4:30pm on the “village green” field next to the old school annexe on Bradway Road (by the shops at the top of Twentywell Lane, buses 25 and M17 stop there).
A recent cask release from Neepsend is Moirai, a 4.2% Pale Ale brewed with Bravo hops upfront and late and dry hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe for a pine and citrus hop character.
The first face-to-face CAMRA Sheffield & District meeting since spring 2020 recently occurred.
A week before their formal opening, newly re-located Heist Brew Co. (107 Neepsend Lane, S3 8AT) allowed us a preview of their new brewery and tap room.
This development incorporates their state-of-the-art brewery, in addition to a very large tap room, complete with benches, shuffle board and a skateboard. Beer-wise, plenty of KeyKeg, including a couple of 11% imperial stouts and various sours and IPAs.
Our next branch meeting on 7 September is, by contrast, at a very traditional pub, the Chantry at Handsworth (S13 9BZ), one of only four pubs in the UK that are claimants as built on consecrated land. There is also a cemetery on the grounds of the pub.
Firstly a big thanks to all who’ve joined us in celebrating our 25th anniversary so far by giving our special birthday releases a try! They should all still be around for the next few weeks so keep an eye out for Celebration(2.8% Mimosa Quarter IPA), Double Deception(8.2% Nelson Sauvin DIPA), Cryo Heathen(5.0% Mosaic Cryo hopped pale ale), Indulgencechocolate cake stout (7.0%) and Dr Morton’s Birthday Extravaganza(4.1% pale ale), plus this year’s vintage of Methuselahbarrel aged stout (9.7%) which has mainly gone into can but might make it on to a bar or two as a very special release.
As well as all of that, we’ve got plenty of new beers coming out for September too.
We’ve got those snack cravings sorted with Doctor Morton’s Bag O Nuts (4.1%), extremely thirst quenching with Cascade hops, and completely nut free! The ever popular Larcenyis making a return, a 4.2% pale ale hopped with Chinook and Columbus for grapefruity and piney flavours and a moreish bitter finish. And if the dark side is more your style, we’ve got you covered too with Salvationbreakfast stout (5.4%) – complex and malty, with oodles of roasty toasty character, oats, maple syrup and coffee. Perhaps the most important beverage of the day!
And finally, later on in the month witnesses the first of our returning autumnal specials… yes, it’s almost time for our 5.0% pumpkin spiced ale, Pilgrimto make a comeback!
Sheffield breweries, True North Brew Co. and Loxley Brewery have teamed up to bring the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon back for its sixth year.
The month-long charity event will run throughout September in 13 of Sheffield’s favourite bars and pubs, with each brewery creating a brand-new beer especially. One For t’Road from True North Brew Co. and Get Em In from Loxley Brewery will be available in all participating venues and with each Half Pint Marathon beer purchased throughout September, a donation will be made to local charity Sheffield Mind.
Sheffield Mind is a Sheffield based charity which provides support to people with mental health issues. Sheffield Mind Business Development Manager Lindsay Doyle-Price said ‘Sheffield Mind are delighted to be partnering with True North Brew Co. and Loxley Brewery in this year’s Sheffield Half Pint Marathon. We have been lucky enough to be beneficiary of the promotion for the last two years and are grateful to all the participating bars for their ongoing support.
‘We very much hope that the people of Sheffield get behind the promotion, as every penny donated to Sheffield Mind will be invested in local service delivery.
‘It’s been a tough year for local people and local business and talking part in the marathon is a great way to support both.’
The premise of the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon is simple – at the starting venue of your choice you will receive your Half Pint Marathon card, then for each venue you visit and purchase one of the speciality beers you will receive a sticker. When your card is filled simply register via truenorthbrewco.uk/halfpintmarathon by 30 September and you will receive an email to let you know when and where you can collect your limited-edition print.
The Sheffield Half Pint Marathon print features hand drawn illustrations of the participating venues by the incredibly talented Will Rea.
Participants can complete the marathon at their own pace, in a day, week or even over the whole month.
True North Brew Co.’s Marketing Manager Krissie Petfield said ‘Mental health is often ignored in the hospitality industry and there is still a long way to go to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those working within the industry.
‘The last few years have been especially difficult with the ups and downs of the pandemic and we’re working towards providing further support to those suffering at True North Brew Co.
‘We are happy to be bringing back the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon alongside Loxley Brewery to raise money for such a worthy cause. It’s a brilliant opportunity to get together with friends and family and raise a (half) pint to support one another.’
This month-long celebration of some of Sheffield’s best independent bars and pubs is aimed at giving people a chance to contribute to a great local charity whilst exploring Sheffield.
Hannah Hebb, Loxley Brewery’s Business Coordinator said ‘It was a great honour to be asked to be a part of the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon. Over the last 18 months mental health has become more important than ever, so we at Loxley Brewery are proud to be supporting Sheffield Mind.
‘It would be fantastic to see people get together for such an amazing cause, supporting local businesses as they go, having a pint and putting the world to rights. It is important to remember that mental health is real, and it matters.’
Whether you’re a local or a visitor, beer lover or beer novice, the Sheffield Half Pint Marathon is not to be missed!
The Sheffield Half Pint Marathon runs throughout September 2021. More information is available at truenorthbrewco.uk/halfpintmarathon or on socials @sheffhalfpint.
The venues
Bar Stewards (Gibralter Street, Kelham Island. Buses 57,81,82,86)
We’ve listed the bus routes and tram stops by the venues above. You can get network maps and timetables from Travel South Yorkshire and all day travel passes (currently discounted until 27 September) from TravelMaster. You can track buses live on a map using the independent BusTimes.org website.
August is our birthday month! And it’s an extra special one this year as we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary, so we’ve worked hard to bring out a series of beers befitting the occasion.
We’ve put twists on a couple of our most favourite beers which we’re very excited about – first up is Double Deception, an 8.2% DIPA version of our much loved Nelson Sauvin hopped pale ale. And we’re making Heathen even Mosaic-ier with a 5.0% Cryo hopped version, which we’ve imaginatively decided to call Cryo Heathen! Dr Morton is getting in the party spirit with his Birthday Extravaganza (4.1%), hopped with Citra and Centennial, and we couldn’t have a birthday without a cake so the next Indulgence is a super sweet and sumptuous chocolate cake stout (7.0%).
We’ve also got the next in our Hidden Treasures series being released – Dreadnoughts Upriver to Peaceful Power (4.0%) is hopped with Chinook and Green Bullet and features the River Don Steam Engine on the pumpclip. Brewery co-owner Sue used to work with this engine and was there when it was run for the very last time before being moved to its current home at Kelham Island Museum, so we really wanted to include this connection in our series of Sheffield’s lesser known gems.
As well as all these newbies, we’d love it if you helped us celebrate our milestone birthday by enjoying one of our flagship, classic cask ales, which have been a part of our history for a quarter of a century. We reckon that’s worth a pint – mine’s a Moonshine!
We’re thrilled to have been selected as one of just three breweries nationwide to create a special collaboration with Indie Beer Shop Day, which will be exclusively available in the 100+ independent beer shops around the country who have signed up for the event. We’ve named the beer Independence, in keeping with the theme! A 4.0% pale ale single hopped with Idaho 7, vegan and gluten free, intended to be deliciously sessionable and very accessible. It launches on 2 July so there’s plenty of time to pick up a can before the day itself on 17 July, when we’ll be taking part in a special virtual beer tasting evening hosted by the legendary beer write, Pete Brown. Find out more about where you can find it on the Indie Beer Shop Day website, and look out for the other two national collaborations from Pilot and Double Barrelled Brewery too!
In cask, we’ve got a new release in the form of Speculation, a 4.0% easy drinking pale hopped with Summit and Southern Cross. And our Geoglyph series comes to a close with Phoenix (4.1%), named in celebration of the birth of our designer James’ baby. This one is a gorgeous golden beer hopped with Chinook and Pacific Jade, for flavours of bold citrus coupled with grassy hints of pine. July also sees the return of our summer seasonal special Splendour (4.4%), infused with boxes and boxes of fresh oranges along with Amarillo and El Dorado hops. This one will be released in cask as well as keg and can. So look out for these popping up on bars during July.
Plus we’ve got three all new beers due out under the Brewers’ Emporium banner – the latest in our Wanderer series is called Outlaws IPA, a 6.0% crisper take on the New England style with plenty of maize in the grist. Inspired by our brewer Christie’s love of country music, this is a Will(ie)amette Nelson Sauvin IPA! We’ve teamed up with Batch Tea Co to make an Earl Grey infused wheat beer, called Reaper – and check out their Crowdfunder campaign to find out how to snap up one of the places on a very exclusive brewery tour! Finally we’re very excited to have another special beer coming out to celebrate our 25th anniversary – Celebration, a Mimosa Quarter IPA (2.8%). Juicy and refreshing and featuring an all new product from our friends at Yakima Chief Hops called Cryo Pop for a supercharged hop character! Here’s hoping we’ll all be able to drink one of these together very soon.
Hello! We hope you’re all enjoying your indoor pints now that more pubs have been able to re-open – we here at Team Abbeydale certainly have! Our pub The Rising Sun is back open indoors, with a full food service running too, so do pop along for a pint!
We’ve got some lovely new releases out in the coming weeks. The next in our Hidden Treasures series is Explorer’s Sweets from Cobbled Streets, a classic 4.1% pale ale which features the Simpkins Sweets factory, located in Hillsborough, on the pumpclip. A family owned business, Simpkins celebrate their centenary this year and their travel sweets are recognised nationwide. The beer itself is hopped with Enigma and Green Bullet, available in cask only.
We are also releasing the first of our Hopback series since the easing of lockdown, this time featuring British Fuggles! We don’t get many opportunities to shout about English grown hops, so thought this series was the perfect place to showcase them. Gently earthy and floral, we’ve chosen to boost the aromatic characteristics with some bergamot juice for a delicately perfumey and well rounded beer.
And from the Brewers Emporium we’ve got two exciting new beers on the way – the next in our Deliverance series is a DDH Mosaic NEIPA at 8.5%, showcasing Mosaic in leaf, T90 and Cryo hop form! And our popular stout series is back with Salvation Tiramisu (6.3%), with coffee and cocoa combining over a complex malt bill, with sweet vanilla for a rounded finish and a fluffy creaminess. Delicious!
With pubs now able to serve customers at indoor tables, Stancill Brewery have released a new beer to mark the occasion.
Outside In is a blonde cask ale at a sessionable 4.3% ABV brewed with Motueka and Comet hops from New Zealand and the US giving a floral aroma and zesty flavour.
Bradfield Brewery has recently released a limited edition of 500 numbered 750 ml bottles of their new 7.5% Kerry imperial stout. Only available from the brewery shop and with limited social media advertising, within less than a week, this was a sell-out.
Like most Bradfield beers, this stout is named after a breed of cow. ‘Kerry’ is appropriate as the breed hails from Ireland, ’the home of stout,’ and is coloured black with white udders. It also, like a strong stout, enjoys a long life.
Brewed using a variety of speciality malts, this bottle conditioned Imperial Stout is full-bodied, smooth and rich. It has a complex mouth feel with bold roasted coffee and rich chocolate flavours.
Imperial stouts derive from the strong versions of beer and porter brewed in London in the C18th and C19th for export to Russia and the Baltic States. Warming alcohol is often noticeable due to the relatively high alcohol content. The wood aging can also produce caramel and vanilla flavours. The most well-know is probably Courage Imperial Russian Stout which was originally brewed by Courage, Barclay and Perkins for Catherine the Great of Russia.
Each bottle was carefully hand-filled, labelled, numbered and waxed by the three brewers: Kieran Chadwick, Sam Jubb and Bruce Woodcock. Six and 12 month bourbon and whisky barrel aged editions will follow this initial batch. Credit is also due to local designer, Anthony Corrigan whose drawing takes centre stage on every bottle.
What commenced as a lockdown project has materialised into an exciting new brew. We look forward to the next release.
Cask is back! With (some) pubs now re-opening their outdoor spaces, we’ve been working hard here at Abbeydale HQ to ramp up our production, and we’re all thrilled to be back delivering to pubs around Sheffield and beyond.
With that in mind, we’ve got some deliciously quaffable cask beers coming up over the next few weeks that are absolutely perfect for beer garden pints!
Originally released in March 2020, shortly before lockdown took hold, we’ve decided to bring back Family Heirlooms and Tuneful Endings, a 4.1%, pale ale brewed with El Dorado and Eureka hops. It’s a beer that tells the story of an important part of the history of Abbeydale Brewery, so we felt it deserved another opportunity to shine – you can read all about it here.
Doctor Morton is back with Demon Drink (4.2%), a golden beer with a hint of caramel, hopped with Simcoe, Ahtanum and a little Sorachi Ace for a piney, tropical flavour and a well balanced bitterness.
Usually one of our annual releases as we start to approach summer, Belfry is back after a hiatus in 2020. This always popular Cascade hopped pale ale (4.5%) has a fruity and floral aroma, which gives way to a smooth citrussy flavour with a hint of biscuit. Crisp and refreshing with a lasting finish.
And coming soon to can, we have the newest release from our Funk Dungeon project – Blind Devotion, 6.2%. This beer is a pineapple weed saison, the recipe of which was the winner of our Funk Fest 2019 homebrew competition, created by Leeds based James Newman. Rye spice, sweet floral characteristics and Nelson Sauvin hops combine with our house brett culture for a beer that’s gently funky with light acidity and oodles of flavour.
For those who aren’t feeling quite ready to head back to the pub just yet, or if your local hasn’t been able to re-open so far, of course our online shop isn’t going anywhere so we’ve got you covered for beers at home too!
